South Park, San Francisco

During a trip to the west coast last year, I visited a nicely-designed little park in the SoMa (South of Market) neighborhood of San Francisco. South Park is also the name of the sub-neighborhood of SoMa within which this park is situated, first developed in the mid-1800s. The park underwent a major renovation in 2016, and now includes a playground, walkways, picnic and seating areas, lawns, and plantings (including bio-retention areas). The custom-designed play structure is the centerpiece of the park, serving as both an attractive sculpture and an exciting play experience.

Photos by Alice Webb

Project design by Fletcher Studio

Koret Children’s Quarter

Situated near the eastern end of Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, the Koret Children’s Quarter playground is a popular destination for city residents. It was built in 2007, replacing the former Sharon Quarters for Children, which was originally constructed in 1888 and believed to be the first public playground in the U.S.  The current play area includes a combination of natural elements, unique sculptures, and manufactured playground structures. One major attraction is an undulating concrete slide built into a hillside.

In 2017, the large play structure was destroyed by arson, but was replaced a year later.

Natural play elements:  sand, rocks, & vegetation

The main play structure includes a ramp connecting to a hillside
path, providing wheelchair accessibility.

The beloved concrete slide

Ocean-themed play sculptures

Lots of plantings surround the play area.

Play sculpture area for pre-school kids

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Photos by Alice Webb

Project design by MIG

Olympic Sculpture Park

Situated on a former industrial site along Seattle’s waterfront, Olympic Sculpture Park consists of a series of dramatic angular surfaces that rise from the shoreline toward the urban center, bridging both a busy street and a railroad. A variety of sculptures accentuate the landscape, which ranges from open lawns to wooded slopes.

The park, which is part of the Seattle Art Museum, was completed in 2007.

“Wake”

“Eagle”

Eye benches and Father and Son fountain

“Echo”

Staircase entry from the waterfront area
There are also sloped walkways to the higher elevations of the park.

“Seattle Cloud Cover”
This piece is situated along a bridge over railroad tracks.

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Photos by Alice Webb

Project design by Weiss/Manfredi

Playground at the Boston Nature Center

The “Nature Nook” is a delightful natural play space on the grounds of the Boston Nature Center & Wildlife Sanctuary, located in the Mattapan neighborhood of the city. In about eight years since the playground’s construction, the vegetation has grown nicely to form a cozy play space consisting of several “rooms” of activity areas. The playground includes all the important elements of nature-based play: water, sand/dirt, wood, plants, rocks, and hills. Additional features include a stage with seating, planters for gardening, music and art spaces, a building construction area, a gathering (seating) space, and a boardwalk.

Pergola with vines at the playground entrance

Water pump and stone stream bed, with adjacent sand play area

Children exploring the woods

Musical play, grass hill, and stage with seating

Building construction area, including a permanent wooden frame that children can lean sticks against to form forts and other structures

Boardwalk through the woods

Climbing log

Bridge over the stream bed; near the sand play, dirt play, gardening, and art areas

Photos by Alice Webb
Project Design by StudioMLA Architects, Brookline, MA

Chihuly Garden and Glass

Some may argue that Dale Chihuly’s glass sculptures have become too mass-produced, with many similar-looking pieces displayed around the world. However, each of his garden installations has a unique quality, due to the ways in which the glass pieces are integrated with the landscape. One of the best examples is the outdoor component of the Chihuly Garden and Glass museum in Seattle, since this garden was designed for both sculpture and plantings, effectively combining and balancing the two.

Photos by Alice Webb

Freeway Park, Seattle

I had the opportunity to visit Jim Ellis Freeway Park in downtown Seattle last June – an iconic public space designed by landscape architects Lawrence Halprin & Angela Danadjieva. It was the first park built over a freeway, and was conceived as a means of re-connecting neighborhoods that were severed from the downtown when Interstate 5 was built. The original section of the park was opened on July 4, 1976 – the nation’s bicentennial.

The park’s structures were designed in the brutalist style that was in vogue at the time, including board-formed concrete walls, planters, and fountain elements. Also, Halprin envisioned the character of this space as “freeway vernacular” (hence the emphasis on concrete), while representing the region’s mountain ranges with the various heights and shapes of the fountain structures. Waterfalls were a large part of the fountains during the early years of the park, and effectively masked the noise from vehicular traffic on the freeway below. However, due to maintenance and safety concerns, some of the fountains were shut off in more recent years. When I visited, no water was running, and I don’t know whether the fountains are turned on at all during the summer.

Plantings throughout the park were also designed to help mask freeway noise and to reduce vehicular pollution. The plant communities represent those typically found in the natural areas of the nearby mountains, and include many mature trees and broadleaf evergreen shrubs.

Urban parks built in this style in the decades following World War II have often suffered from neglect in recent years, but this space seems to be relatively well-maintained and appreciated, at least for now. I hope the interest and support for Freeway Park will persist into the future.

Main fountain structure in Freeway Park

Typical zig-zag walkway with seating

One of several park entrances

Smaller fountain structure next to one of the park’s plazas

Typical seating design

Main fountain structure, sans water

Photos by Alice Webb

An Urban Dog Park

I’m back from a blogging hiatus, and I’ve got a few sites to post about that I visited during a trip to Seattle earlier this year. The first is a unique little dog park on 6th Avenue, on Amazon’s campus but open to the public, tucked between a tall building and the company’s new “Spheres” near the downtown.

Most leash-free sites that come to mind are the suburban variety with large fenced lawns – although this one is small, it’s a valuable amenity for those urban-dwelling canines who don’t have their own yards to roam. Dogs who live in the city are probably used to smaller, cramped quarters anyway, so they don’t need a lot of space to run around and socialize off-leash.

This little dog park is the best-looking one I’ve ever seen – although the dogs don’t care, their humans probably appreciate the pleasant features of this space. Instead of being separated from the street and other areas with fencing, the designers took advantage of the grade change of the site and included a retaining wall which works very well as a barrier. This wall is an attractive metal gabion which includes a carefully-placed line of aqua-colored glass stones along the center.

The park also contains a little patch of lawn (artificial, I’m assuming); rocks (for peeing?); a dog-height drinking fountain; and a multi-level platform (perhaps so the pups can play “king of the hill”). And, of course, there’s the requisite doggy poop bag station. The whole park looks like it’s regularly washed down to keep things clean.

I rate this space as a win-win for both the dogs and their people.
 
Photo by Alice Webb

Post Office Square, Boston

In Boston’s financial district, a lovely 1.7-acre park is nestled between the office buildings, giving workers and others a pleasant respite for enjoying lunch and relaxation. Post Office Square, also known as Norman B. Leventhal Park, features numerous trees and other plantings, an open lawn, a pergola along one boundary, fountains, and a café. This space is privately-owned and maintained, but open to the public. It was completed in 1992 on a site that was formerly occupied by an above-ground garage. Parking is now located below the property.
 

A central lawn, pergola with benches, and other seating areas provide plenty of opportunities for relaxation.
 

Fountain near the north end of the park
 

Seating wall along the west side of the space
 

Café with outdoor seating at the south end
 

The park is flanked by several attractive art deco buildings.
 
Photos by Alice Webb

Protect Your Trees, Please!

We all love trees in our built landscapes, but the odds are against their survival if we don’t follow a few simple rules. Although I’m not a horticulturist or urban forester, I’ve worked with people in those professions in the past and learned a lot from them. I’ve also attended lectures and webinars by renowned arboriculture expert, James Urban, from which I’ve gained valuable knowledge.

I’ve seen countless examples of trees that are improperly sited, planted, and/or maintained, which oftentimes has shortened their life span. Below I’ve listed some guidelines for design, installation, and maintenance that will increase the chances of your new trees thriving to a venerable old age, and keep existing trees healthy as well.

New Trees:

• Shade trees such as Maples and Oaks should be spaced at least 35 feet on center for healthy crown (canopy) development.
• Do not specify tree grates or guards. These will girdle (i.e. strangle) trees when their trunks outgrow the size of the grate hole or guard diameter. Better alternatives around the base of the tree are mulched areas, groundcover plantings, pavers on sand setting beds, or porous rubber surfacing, which the tree trunk can push away as it grows.
• Avoid specifying staking and guying, since the guys are frequently never removed, girdling and killing the tree as it grows. A tree cannot survive if its supply of water and nutrients is completely cut off. (This action occurs in the cambium layer, just beneath the bark.) Trees do not need stakes and guys unless they are planted in extremely windy sites or have abnormally small root balls in comparison to the size of their canopy. In these cases, make absolutely sure that the stakes and especially the guys are removed after the first growing season.
• Tree roots generally extend at least to the edge of the zone beneath the canopy of the tree, and often beyond that. Don’t limit the root zone to such a small area that the tree becomes stunted. Plan for its future growth where possible.
• When the budget allows, invest in modular subgrade cells and structural soils to prevent soil compaction where trees are sited in sidewalks, plazas, and other hard-surfaced areas. These allow roots to grow sufficiently beneath paved sites, resulting in much healthier trees than those planted without these systems.
• The planting hole should be at least twice the diameter of the root ball.
• If roots are pot-bound (encircling the root ball), they should be unwound and extended out from the root ball as much as possible when planting.
• The root ball should be set on firm soil so it the ball does not settle. The trunk flare, or collar, needs to be at least 3 inches above surrounding grade.
• After the root ball is set in the hole, the areas around the root ball should be backfilled with un-amended native soil. Tamp soil in place by hand. Water heavily before mulching, and fill with more native soil where it has settled. Do not place any soil over the root ball.
• Mulch should be about 3 inches thick, but no mulch should be placed within 6 inches of the trunk.
• Trees should be watered at least once a week during drought periods for the first two years after installation. This means thoroughly soaking the root ball by hand, and not relying on sprinklers!

Existing Trees:

• On construction sites, keep construction equipment and any other heavy objects away from the root zones of existing trees. I advise specifying/installing temporary fencing around the root zones for this purpose. Compaction of soil around roots will kill a tree.
• Do not specify any grading within root zones of existing trees (neither cut nor fill). Cutting will destroy roots; filling will suffocate them.
• Do not trench though a tree’s root zone, for installation of utilities or any other purpose. As mentioned earlier, this zone often extends beyond the tree’s canopy edge. The small feeder roots near the surface of the soil are just as important to the tree as its larger roots are. Cutting through any roots will often shorten the life of the tree.

All Trees (Old and New):

• Do not “volcano mulch” around trees (piling mulch high around the trunk). This can lead to rot and decay of the buried part of the trunk, and result in a tree’s death. As noted earlier, mulch should only be about 3” thick, and should not be placed within 6” of the trunk.
• Keep a mulch or plant bed around trees that are in an open lawn situation, instead of allowing grass to grow to the trunk. Turf adjacent to trees can be an invitation for overzealous weed trimming around the trunk, which can cut through the bark, particularly of young trees. If these cuts completely encircle the tree, this can result in girdling, leading to the tree’s death.
• If you’re going to hire someone to prune your trees, be sure to hire a certified arborist for this job, not just anyone with a chain saw. Improper pruning can compromise a tree’s health.
• Do not encircle a tree’s trunk and branches with strings of holiday lights, unless you plan to remove the lights after the winter season or holiday. If the lights are left in place indefinitely, the tree will be girdled as it tries to grow.

Death by tree ties
 

Trees outgrowing their grates and guards
 
Photo credits:
Top photo of large tree – Stefan Wernli (obtained from Wikimedia Commons)
All other photos – Alice Webb

North End Parks, Boston

On a chilly, windy Sunday back in late March, I walked the majority of the Rose Kennedy Greenway while visiting Boston. I found that most areas were devoid of visitors, except for the North End Parks and the southern-most tip at the Chinatown gate (which always seems to have activity). The two North End parcels (divided by a cross street) include a spacious steel pergola running along the east perimeter, facing a lawn and linear water play areas. I imagine that these spaces attract big crowds in summer, judging from the amount of use they got on the cold day I visited. The parks feel quite connected to the city, with views in all directions of downtown and north end buildings, as well as the iconic Zakim bridge. However, ample plantings and some grade separations help to segregate these spaces comfortably from the busy perimeter streets.
 

All the swinging benches in the pergolas were occupied at the time – unfortunately, I’ve heard that they’ve been removed due to maintenance/safety issues, and replaced with standard benches (which were there before).
 

 

Area with water play jets
 

 

 
Photos by Alice Webb